Category Archives: Piracy and armed robbery

Satellite imagery have revealed a likely bunker spill from one of the four vessels that were attacked near Fujairah emirate, in the gulf of Oman on 12 May.[1] The damaged ship is Bahri’s very large crude carrier (VLCC) Amjad. This maritime route is particularly critical, as Fujairah is the only Emirati terminal located on the…

Between 21 and 23 April, a suspected pirate gang attacked one Korean and one Spanish fishing vessels off the Somali coast, before being apprehended by EU NAVFOR Atalanta. These were the first attempted pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa since October last year. The suspected pirates hijacked a Yemeni dhow on 19 April and…

The in-depth analysis elaborated by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) was divulgated at the occasion of the High-Level Conference on Oceans that took place in Brussels on 19 March 2019. The paper addresses the most pressing challenges in relation to maritime security: piracy and armed robbery at sea. Africa is particularly vulnerable to these…

In February 2019, the Information Sharing Centre (ISC) of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) reported three incidents of armed robbery at sea in Asia. The incidents occurred respectively at Belawan anchorage in Indonesia, at Caofeidian anchorage in China and in the Singapore Strait. The number…

The Information Sharing Centre (ISC) of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) reported a 25% decrease in incidents of piracy and armed robbery at sea in Asia between 2017 and 2018. According to the data collected in the 2018 ReCAAP ISC Annual Report, the total number of incidents reached…

On 15 December, a merchant vessel was attacked off the city of Brass, located in the southern Nigerian state of Bayelsa. In 2018, Nigeria experienced an increase in piracy attacks, particularly off the Niger Delta, source to offshore oil production. The latest report of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recorded that of the 57 attacks…

During the last years, the stability of the Somali territory and waters has been a priority of the EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). In December 2018, the EU naval Operation Atalanta (EU NAVFOR) celebrated 10 years of deployment. While EU NAVFOR contributes in fighting piracy at sea, civilian and military missions on the…

In the latest report by International Maritime Bureau (IMB) on piracy incidents, 156 incidents were globally reported in the first nine months of 2018. The Gulf of Guinea alone accounts for 57 of the 156 reported incidents. Most of these incidents have been reported in and around Nigeria (41), but there has also been a noticeable…

From November 3 to 10, the European Union, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, France and the United States conducted African NEMO, the Navy’s Exercise for Maritime Operation in the Gulf of Guinea. The EU project Gulf of Guinea Inter-regional Network (GoGIN) acted as a partner in the operation, along with the marine forces of 14 countries which…

The EU NAVFOR Operation ATALANTA seized and destroyed a Pirate Action Group (PAG) whaler off the Somali coast on Sunday 28 October 2018. The whaler was tracked down by an investigation of the EU NAVFOR after it attacked the KSL Sydney, a Hong-Kong-flagged Bulk Carrier. It was identified thanks to a Spanish Maritime Patrol and…